While we are focused on advance fee fraud here, and don't normally deal with websites or companies related to stock trading, some quick research on this one leaves me with no doubt.
First of all, the site has "news" going back to 2006, yet the site registration paints a different picture:
Domain Name: HOWARDGARYANDCO.COM
Registrar: NETEARTH ONE INC. D/B/A NETEARTH
Whois Server: whois.advancedregistrar.com
Referral URL:
http://www.advancedregistrar.com Name Server: NS1.BGSAWEBHOSTING.INFO
Name Server: NS2.BGSAWEBHOSTING.INFO
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 11-nov-2011
Creation Date: 11-nov-2011
Expiration Date: 11-nov-2012
So, site is less than 6 months old, registered for only a year--very common characteristics of a fake site.
The site is also registered using privacy protection, something you would not expect of a legitimate company in that industry.
Then, looking at one of the older "news stories" in which the "company" claims to have won an award from Motley Fool: some searching on Motley Fool's website finds no references whatsoever to a Howard and Gary company.
Moving on, some more searching leads me to a legitimate website for Caris & Company,
http://www.cariscompany.com/ It took less than a minute to discover that the Howard and Gary website was copied from
http://www.cariscompany.com/ Even the senior management biographies were copied from the real company, with only the names and a couple of minor details changed!
Based on the evidence above, there is no doubt this is a fake site.
